Slow news day...

...today, but it wasn't around this time in 1815. It's the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, in which the terror regime of Napoleon Bonaparte and its weapons of mass preservation (i.e. the tin can) was defeated by the coalition of the willing and their superior footwear (i.e. the Wellington boot). With a little help from the command decisions of the Duke of Wellington himself. At least some of us in Ireland like to think of the Duke as a high-achieving Irishman, and an impressive column with his likeness on top has survived for years in Trim, County Meath, his constituency when he was a MP -- this in the context of other symbols of the Empire becoming an easy target for some IRA explosives. A side benefit of the anniversary for tourists in London is that his stately home in Hyde Park Corner is offering free admission this week, and thus a chance to see his impressive art collection (some seized during the Napoleonic wars, and then retroactively gifted to him). A few of the images from the collection can be seen on this page; what struck us is that the Duke had some nose-related self-esteem issues. All the approved portraits, such as on the museum home page, show a perfectly proportioned nose. Not so the cartoons, the most famous of which can be seen by scrolling down to the end of the collections page -- it's the image you all probably know from the Monty Python opening sequence. Our current leaders would never be so vain.